From the archives: Hillary Clinton on gay marriage in 2000

In light of the flap over the Fresh Air interview with Hillary Clinton on her evolving views on gay marriage, we looked back at what Clinton said on the subject in 2000 as she was running for Senate from Westchester. At the time, in contrast to the states-rights view she took in the interview, she said categorically that “marriage is as a marriage has always been, between a man and a woman.”

In the interview, Terry Gross was trying to pin Clinton down on whether her views on gay marriage had changed or whether she had supported it privately but made the political calculus that she couldn’t say so in public. After ending her run as secretary of state, Clinton came out in support of gay marriage.

Clinton acknowledged that her views had undergone an evolution and that she had not supported gay marriage as a senator or when she ran for president in 2008. But she said “For me marriage had always been a matter left to the states and in many of the conversations that I and my colleagues and supporters had I fully endorsed the efforts by activists to work state by state and, in fact, that is what is working.”

But in 2000 at a press conference in White Plains just after moving into her home in Chappaqua, Clinton said “Marriage has got historic, religious and moral content that goes back to the beginning of time, and I think a marriage is as marriage has always been, between a man and a woman.”

No mention of the states.

Photo: Hillary Clinton at the Memorial Day Parade in Chappaqua this year.

Elizabeth Ganga covers Westchester County government and politics. She has worked for The Journal News/LoHud.com since 2000 covering municipalities and schools in southern and northern Westchester and writing about housing, the environment and other issues.